Romans 6:21

THE HIDEOUSNESS OF SIN

‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.’

Romans 6:21

I. The fruitlessness of sin.—‘What fruit had ye?’ asks the Apostle, appealing to their own memory and judgment.

(a) The reward that sin offers gratifies only the lowest desires of our nature.

(b) The pleasantness that sin offers is more than neutralised by its bitterness. Take the devotee of pleasure. What is his enjoyment compared to the disappointment, chagrin, ennui which he endures?

(c) Sin’s pleasures are purchased at a dreadfully disproportionate cost. What does the sinner barter away? God’s smile, peace of conscience, life itself in the highest sense. This is the price he pays for his pleasures, such as they are.

(d) Sin’s pleasures are short-lived. Follow out any degrading, sinful pleasure, and how soon it consumes itself!

II. The shamefulness of sin.—Looking back they were ‘ashamed.’

(a) The shame of putting high faculties and great opportunities to low uses.

(b) The shame of ingratitude. ‘How much owest thou unto my Lord’—thou to whom He has given so royally? How deep the shame to spend His substance upon riotous living.

III. The fatal end of sin.—‘The end of those things is death.’ No one dares to say that a life of sin can lead to happiness. God’s Word says that it leads to ‘death’; and we have no line that can fathom that ocean of despair.